Law & Economics of Blogging
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Larry E. Ribstein, Univ. of Illinois College of Law, offers on SSRN Initial Reflections on the Law and Economics of Blogging. After an overview of the technology of blogging, the author explores the economics of blogging, discussing private costs and benefits (such as self expresion and reputation, among others) on the one hand and social benefits and costs on the other hand. Personally, I’m particularly interested in the low-quality information argument as a potential social cost, since it links nicely to my research-in-progress on information quality on the Internet. Unfortunately, the quality argument made by Ribstein is indeed “initial” as the paper’s title suggests.
Ribstein then focuses on public choice of blogging, followed by a discussion of specific legal issues, including the journalists’ privilege, the application of election laws, copyright issues, media ownership restrictions, as well as defamation and licensing laws.
Overall, a nice and short Saturday morning “food-for-thought” read.
